The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-26
Special Contributors.
R ETRI B U TION
By HATTIE TYING GRIswOLD.
columbus, Wis.,

In that most powerful novel of Count
Tolstoi, Anna Karenina, we have an
appalling picture of that retribution,
which has been the theme of so many
Of the great masterpieces of literature.
From the earliest times, poets and
dramatists and novelists have found
this fruitful subject, and have dealt
with it with varying degrees of pas
sion and of power. In modern times
few stronger delineations of the inevi-
table retribution which follows sin
have been made, than this Of the great
Russian novelist. The motto of the
book, vengeance is Mine, will Re-
pay'' gives the whole motive of the
powerful book.
The story is one of thrilling interest,
and the genius Of the author is shown
most strongly in the manner in which
the retribution is brought about. Not
from the outside-as it would have been
by a less strong and original writer
but from within, the sin Furnishes it
self, as is the method of nature, or of
God, as you choose to phrase it. 1t is
story Of an adulterous amour, and the
-efisa 1asesy, as the endlaof~saeis
l5aisons is apt to be, if the parties as
in this case are persons capable of
a sincere, profound and solemn pas
sion. The heroine Anna Karenina,
loves Tronsky, for whom she has left
her husband, an ambitious and absor-
bed, perhaps, also an unlovable man,
with perfect passion. For him she
has sacrificed even her son, whom she
loved with all the intensity of her nat
ure; her reputation, which was almost
equally dear, for she was proud, as
well as passionate woman,-and at
first she feels satisfied with her sacri-
fees, and lives in feverish dream of
joy. Her lover takes her to his estates,
where his high position insures her a
certain respect, as he installs her as
mistress of his splendid domain, as
though she were his legitimate wife.
His family treat her with considera-
ton, and outwardly she is not subjected
to those humiliations which in real
life, and in most works of fiction, at
tend such connection. She refuses
the divorce which her husband offers
her, preferring that the bond which
binds her to Tronsky shall be one of
mutual love only, and she maintains
this exaltation of feeling for consid-
erable time. She has now daughter
whom she does not love, all her moth
erly affection being centered in the son
she has deserted, and whom she mourns
with unavailing sorrow.
Soon the true punishment Of guilty
love sets in. "All the illusion which
exalted the senses, as long as they are
pastured in loves shadow as one of
Shakespeare's characters calls it, van
ishes as soon as one is stated of love it.
self. Her life seemed hot feverish
dream, unreal and terrible, though filled
with kind of joy in the sweetness of
her love, and her certainty of its being
fully reciprocated by her lover. But
the feeling of moral decadence which
was within her made the dream almost
hideous at times, even in the earlier
days. She felt, we are told, "the i'm
possibility of expressing the shame, the
horror, the joy, that were now her pOr-
tion. Rather than put her feelings into
idle and feeting words, she preferred
to keep silent. AS time went on, words
fit to express the completely of her SEN
sations still failed to come to her, and
even her thoughts were incapable of
translating the impressions of her heart.
She hoped that calmness and peace
would come to her, but they held aloof.
Whenever she thought of the past, and
thought of the future, and thought OF
her own fate, she was seized with fear
aud tried to drive these thoughts away
With a relentless hand Tolstoi, de-
seribes all the torments of her lot
This is the keen and bitter interest
of the book, the agonies of soal max
ing expiation for a grievous wrong
"What agonies of remorse, says another
''this illegal union so passionately de
sired brings upon the guilty woman
What deep notifications and whai